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Wed 9 September 2026 18:15, UK
Sure, he’s played characters who were already iconic before he got there, but has Ben Affleck ever played a role that he made iconic himself? Looking at his filmography, you’d have to say no.
Matt Damon has, since Jason Bourne was hardly a pressing concern in pop culture circles before Affleck’s platonic life partner brought him to the big screen in 2002, whereas the two-time Academy Award-winning actor and filmmaker has been more inclined to slip into the skin of someone whose iconography is already established.
If you’re a big Tom Clancy fan, and there’s nothing wrong with that, Jack Ryan was already iconic before Affleck became the third person to play him in a movie, after Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford, in The Sum of All Fears. If you’re a comic book fan, Daredevil was already iconic before Affleck played him, too, but he’d be the first to admit that he shit the bed on that one.
Batman speaks for himself, with the Argo and Gone Baby Gone director far from the first or last star to squeeze themselves into the superhero’s signature costume, even if nobody can seem to agree whether he was given a short shrift to cut his potential as a top-tier ‘Dark Knight’ off at the knees, or if he was never suited for the part at all.
Beyond that, he hasn’t embodied anyone who’s taken on a life of their own. Based on how much he grew to despise his stint as the ‘Caped Crusader’, he’s not even interested anymore, with Affleck’s priorities having shifted away from the blockbuster model that almost destroyed his career the first time.
Still, that doesn’t disqualify him from passing judgment on any other legendary cinematic figure, and when it comes to one of the vascular meat-heads who defined the 1980s, it’s fair to say he’s not a fan. “Rambo is not my idea of a hero,” Affleck stated. “I just think that’s not realistic or plausible. Heroes are flawed, and that’s OK.”
Admittedly, there are two sides to that particular, Sylvester Stallone-shaped coin. In 1982’s First Blood, John Rambo is absolutely a flawed character, a traumatised Vietnam veteran whose survival instincts kick in, and he ends the classic thriller by having a full-blown emotional breakdown with his heart on his sleeve.
Further reading: Cutting Room Floor
When it comes to the sequels, though, Affleck isn’t wrong. Ignoring everything about the opener, First Blood Part II and Rambo III turn the protagonist into a one-note, unstoppable killing machine, one who thrives on having his rippling biceps on full display as he mows down another small army of disposable enemies, when he’s not busy stabbing them or blowing them up, that is.
Is Rambo an unrealistic, implausible hero? In his second, third, fourth, and fifth outings, yes, he is. At least we’ll always have First Blood to look back on as the embodiment of the opposite of everything that Affleck came to despise about the character, even if it only accounts for 20% of the franchise.
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